sailanacra

Bad judgement from Hotel and bank. My wife was asked once by a bank if she was a stripper because she always came in with ones. She was a waitress! Where do people get the gall?

GUWonder

As happens late at night or in the early morning hours, "interracial" couples (of some combinations) returning to hotels get this kind of "prostitution-alert" treatment at hotels -- from the front desk or "security" staff -- way more often than couples formed by those who appear to be of the same ethnic/"racial" background as each other. Hilton isn't unique in this regard, as the same kind of dynamic plays out at hotels of other brands too. It's sort of an industry problem juxtaposed with a "see something say something" kind of paranoia that leads to various sorts of ridiculous outcomes such as this one involving stimpy.

Jailer

Checking in at the hospital in the midst of labor, the admitting staff asked American-born/Chinese descent Mrs. Jailer to answer questions while she was power-breathing. Receiving no answer they asked, “Lady, do you speak English?”

To this day, 21 years later, when having a discussion with my wife that appears to me, at any rate, to make no sense I always ask, “Lady, do you speak English?” I do watch my back for a few days afterwards; you know how those foreign Orientals do hold a grudge.

JDiver

I believe the US does, in fact have significantly looser laws than the UK when dealing with libel, slander and defamation. If I am incorrect, I am sure you will furnish sources, correct? (My reply was to HhonorGguard, who seemed to imply any action against the property for libel would be hopeless, as I read it, to put what I said back into context.)

Need

OMG. The fact that you are still alive to post about this means that your wife is the most forgiving woman I have ever known in my life!

BTW, my wife was also asked if our 50% Chinese 50% Russian 100% American son was adopted from China when she took him to the park when he was a baby.

GUWonder

My apologies for not paying attention to the context. You are indeed correct.

Libel, slander, defamation: yes.

Human trafficking, prostitution, pimping: no.

There's not much of a libel/slander/defamation case in the UK when one party reports another party to the police or intelligence services there and doesn't go about otherwise making a public display of their suspicions. It's unfortunate that accusers who get it wrong are so often protected from being found liable for damages -- in the US much as in the UK.

Hhonor Gguard

deleted, company policy

HMPS

Reminds of the time when we arrived late at LHR so missed connection to BOM.

My son, then about ten was parked about 15 ft away , always within my sight.

I had to wait In rebooking line so kept an eye on him, saw him talk toa tall Texan ( hat and boots).

After a while he looked at me , shook his head and carried on.

I asked my son about the exchange : T= Son where you headed ? S= Bombay, India. T where you from ? S : From Detroit ! T : OK, where are your parents from ? S:Oh they are from Pittsburgh !

No wonder the Texan walked away confused. We are from India ! Whwn I asked son why he said so, he said he saw that in a movie once and was dying to try it on someone. !!

Oneworldplus2

LOL!!!

stifle

Some of each. Don't know which Dundee is though.

This is unfortunately a typical story in the UK. I do think that stimpy deserves some form of compensation; a be our guest certificate or points equivalent would be about right.

Edit: I notice he got one.

HMPS

Yes, I wonder howmany moe like us who have decided to shun a transit or stay in UK for such problems.

golfmad

Which part of this story is 'typical for the UK' stifle ?

stifle

Sorry, I was going to expand on it and then got called by the guy giving me a lift so I just hit post.

It's typical in the UK that people with authority add two and two and get fourteen when there is any suspicion of human trafficking, any possible danger to children, any risk to health and safety, or the possibility of terrorism. It took a high court order to stop the police from doing no-suspicion stop and searches on anyone they wanted, notionally due to suspicion of terrorism (a power that in practice was used to harass photographers and racial minorities, who are still so harassed by private security in malls etc.).

ironmanjay

Guys, you are missing the point. This is hilton's latest effort at improving perks for diamonds..send in the cops

brkandjfk

Sorry I was confused by this: (bolding mine)


Sorry, I must have misunderstood this part: (bolding mine)


Now, no one likes being investigated. I can tell you as someone who's conducted and managed investigations in sworn and unsworn positions at various levels of government, as part of agencies and task forces, many times the cooperation of regular citizens is sought, and many times a set of particular circumstances serves to clear someone of concern. I have no objection to your description of the actions of hotel management, they reported activity they were asked to report.

The circumstances that led to that report seemed appropriate to the hotel, based on the instructions they received from law enforcement.

If you merely drove a red SUV down a street minutes after a reported bank robbery on that same street, and the getaway vehicle was reported to be a red SUV, you'd be as innocent as can be and would still be taken out at gunpoint, detained (in handcuffs normally), and questioned as to your recent activities. (Then you'd be let go with an explanation...)

This is a part of the system of legal justice (in both the USA, and in England, where the system of policing in the USA is based.)

Glad you were satisfied in the end, and you frankly shouldn't have had to wait for that explanation.

Edited to add: Also, travel employees (hotels, airlines, car rental agents, etc.) are increasingly being trained to report suspicious circumstances. There will likely be many sets of events that in the end don't warrant such suspicion. However, the "See Something, Say Something" program is all about this idea...